March 13, 2019

All the Basics you Need to Know about IP Addresses

The internet took a massive turn when IPs and IP addresses were first created. These days you have very few people who have not heard those terms at least dozens of times. That said, most PC users would be still hard pressed to give you a basic and correct definition of either. Below is a look at what IPs and IP addresses are, and the kind of bearing they have on modern businesses.

Internet Protocols

Every computer is programmed to follow commands, and protocols are basically the ones that tell a machine what to do when communicating with other machines. The Internet Protocol or IP is responsible for delivering, routing and addressing online requests. Each request gets one electronic source address sent out, which is called the IP address. Without this, you would not be able to get the information you wanted on your screen, such as the result of an online search. Lots of companies even buy IPv4 addresses these days, with each ipv4 sale overseen by one of the five regional internet registries set up for exactly this purpose.

IP Addresses and Letters

IP addresses are essentially indicative of where your current device can be found on the web. That means every single device has its own unique number or identifier, without supplying which it would not be able to “talk” to PCs outside the local network. When sending information, two extra pieces would need to be added much the same way as when posting a letter: the destination address and the return address.

Uniqueness of IP addresses

No two computers connected simultaneously to the internet can be carrying the same IP address. This would lead you to initially think that these addresses are geographically bound in some way, but they are not. What you have is a different kind of location, which is based upon the numerals and dots in each respective address. These let the concerned machines know who is sending the data, and whom the commands are intended for. A message without an IP address cannot be traced back to its source, which means it cannot be replied to. The original sender would receive no response whatsoever.

In conclusion, IP addresses are the basic tools when it comes to sending data between machines connected to the internet. Without these, the sender would face the certainty of their message getting lost amid a sea of other traversing the web every second, making their dispatch all but useless. That is why each machine needs to have a unique IP address every time it connects to the web.